We have slight advantage - Lennon

Celtic manager Neil Lennon admitted his side have "a slight advantage" in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League title race after fighting out a goalless draw with Rangers at Ibrox.

The result could have been even better for the Hoops had Allan McGregor not pulled off a series of fine stops, capped by a late penalty save from Georgios Samaras. As it stands Celtic remain one point behind their Old Firm rivals but with a game in hand.

Lennon said: "It's a slight advantage. We have a game in hand and we can't afford to lose it."

He added: "It's a tough game away to Inverness but the team can take a lot of confidence (from this match). We were asked a lot of questions and the players answered them.

"In the second half I thought we were the far better team. Their goalkeeper got man of the match so that says a lot about our performance.

"We weathered the storm we knew Rangers would throw at us physically and but for McGregor we would have won the game."

Rangers manager Walter Smith believed his team were the better side for large portions of the game and was ultimately disappointed that the hosts could not find a goal.

"It was one of those games, I thought for an hour we were excellent," he said. "Obviously looking at the way the game finished it opened up a little bit and Celtic had a couple of opportunities to go ahead, from our own point of view we were disappointed. We had the better start to the game but we never managed to turn that into goals.

"Celtic are the favourites right now and are in a position we want to be in - we are on a good run, so from our own point of view we have to keep playing, keep our run going and the pressure that comes at the end of the season could help us.

"Celtic know they have to go and win their games and it isn't always easy at this stage of the season."